Reason Morning Links: Air Force Filters Wikileaks, "Blasphemy" Execution Looms in Pakistan, New Reports Gloomy on Afghan War

• Air Force blocks access to New York Times, other outlets that posted the Wikileaks cables.
• Holbrooke's last words about Afghanistan may have been in jest.
• Kosovo prime minister accused of harvesting human organs.
• Bring me the head of Henry IV.
• Christian mother in Pakistan faces execution for blaspheming Muhammad.
• New intelligence reports paint bleak outlook for war in Afghanistan.
• Senate spending bill larded with 6,000 earmarks worth $8 billion.

Comments

[John]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....id=topnews

Washington Post on the big scary gun lobby.

[Tim]

Talking gun control is the intellectual comfort food the comrades need in these hard times.

[Old Mexican]

It's a badly written article, very tendentious, full of innuendo... Classic WaPo journalism.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

They spend all that time blathering about the "electoral influence" of the NRA. Meanwhile, they drop this sentence in the middle of the story as casually as a dog taking a dump:

"Only two groups have spent more on campaigns since 1989 - the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, according to a review of campaign financing by The Washington Post."

[FleeingCali]

Maybe the WaPo could do a story analyzing the effects of drug legalization here on the mexican drug war? Guns aren't causing mexicans to shoot each other, the illegal profits from selling us drugs are the motivation....

[John]

It gets even better. They whip out the old "American guns in Mexico" bit. Check out the weapons in this slide show. I am going to go out on a limb here and say, you can't buy heavy machine guns and grenades at legal US gun dealers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml#photo=3

[Warty]

No dude, I bought an RPD like the third picture just yesterday. At a gun show loophole. Within 1000 feet of a school.

[Mr. FIFY]

If you were smoking, and eating cupcakes at the same time, Warty...

[Warty]

"It's an .88 Magnum. It shoots through schools."

[VikingMoose]

*hangs Warty on a hook*

[Tim]

"US guns slaughtering Mexicans" plays better in certain circles than:
"Mexicans slaughtering Mexicans."

[Slut Bunwalla]

The US guns just fire themselves! No one's even holding them!

[Kristen]

OMG! It's just like Stephen King predicted in Maximum Overdrive!

[Warty]

Behind the scenes, federal agents in charge of stopping gun trafficking to Mexico have quietly advanced a plan to help stem the smuggling of high-powered AK-47s and AR-15s to the bloody drug war south of the border.

Heroes!

The controversial proposal by officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives calls for a measure strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association: requiring gun dealers to report multiple sales of rifles and shotguns to ATF.

Dastards!

[generic Brand]

By what authority would the sales have to be reported? Or is it SGA: Standard Governmental Authority?

[Swat Team]

Don't make me shoot your dog, sir.

[Tim]

"...quietly advanced a plan to help stem the smuggling of high-powered AK-47s and AR-15s to the bloody drug war..."

I'm guessing it doesn't involve building a fence or anything that would upset Liberals.

[Mike M.]

I expect this video of the crazed gunman at the school board at Panama City, Florida to go viral very soon and be seized upon by liberals for a renewed push to ban all the evil firearms.

It is admittedly a terrifying video, but in reality it shows why you want to have good guys around who are armed.

[Brett L]

Or why you should practice with that pistol before you get your crazy on. Seriously, hit the range once in a while. I'm surprised that guy managed to get himself with that last shot.

[SugarFree]

Isn't the real lesson that all women should carry around a couple of bricks in their purse at all times, in case they need to beat a gunman?

[Brett L]

That lady has some serious guts.

[Fluffy]

Yes, she does.

"That guy has a gun. I'm going to sneak up behind him and knock the gun away with my purse. Be right back."

[JW]

I expect this video of the crazed gunman at the school board at Panama City, Florida to go viral very soon and be seized upon by liberals for a renewed push to ban all the evil firearms.

Of course, the fact that he was a convicted criminal who had managed to get a hold of a gun despite alllllll of their very effective gun control laws that say that he can't have a gun, will be lost on these brave warriors.

[Mike M.]

That lady has some serious guts.

You aren't kidding. I'd vote for her for Person of the Year before either Assange or Zuckerberg.

[CavMedic]

Yep-but so does the school board President (or superintendent of schools, whoever) who tried to reason with that lunatic and even offered himself in exchange for everyone else.

[kiwi dave]

that superintendant guy was impressively cool.

[wingnutx]

The result is that a president such as Obama, whose campaign platform called for tougher gun laws, finds his freedom of action circumscribed

NRA hates Obama's freedom.

[Fluffy]

I thought I read somewhere that they let that Christian woman in Pakistan off? Is this story up to date?

[Fluffy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....87647.html

So she wasn't pardoned the way the Huffington Post told me?

Gosh, if you can't trust the Huffington Post, who CAN you trust?

[SugarFree]

It's like my whole world has been turned upside down.

[Fatwa Issuer]

he's a liberal, modern-minded president and he's not going to see a poor woman like this targeted and executed

Double blasphemy!

[CavMedic]

Pardoning her is not enough. Unless she is protected from her neighbors and the local imam, she is probably better off in custody (that's based on a report I saw on the BBC last week).

[Fist of Etiquette]

Senate spending bill larded with 6,000 earmarks worth $8 billion.

Six years on a throne makes any message the subjects send seem so very irrelevant.

[generic Brand]

My biggest problem with this is when apologists say it's only $8 billion. Well if these billions aren't that much, how about you just distribute it among 346 million people instead of spending it on your pet projects? Oh what? We can't have OUR money back?

[Restoras]

Silly taxpayer, thinking it was ever your money. The governemtn printed it you know and it has Federal this and that written all over it! Cleary it's theirs! You were just borrowing it...

[generic Brand]

Oh good point. I mean I don't work to actually improve my quality of life, I just do it for the kudos. If only the government took kudos as taxes (not that they would get that many)

[draco's ghost]

You finally understand

[2012 Voter]

All. Incumbents. Out.

And eliminate the congresscreature pension.

[Wesley]

Six years on a throne? Just ten minutes on a throne makes my legs go to sleep.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Remember that story a while back about the person who had been on the toilet so long their skin started to fuse with the toilet seat?

[Death Panelist]

Whoa, cyborg.

I suppose if you're going to fuse with something...

[Old Mexican]

Christian mother in Pakistan faces execution for blaspheming Muhammad.

And that is how it should be - doesn't that Christian know we must be tolerant of other people? My college professor president told me so!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I appreciate the inclusion of "mother" in the headline. If it was Jersey Shore's "The Situation" being killed for not adhering to the supposed tenets of someone else's religion, no one would give a damn.

[generic Brand]

From what I can tell from unedited clips of the show on The Soup, The Situation is actually a decent cook. It would have been much better if Snookie was the Christian mother.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Look, I've never watched Jersey Shore and have only a mild understanding of who The Situation is, but does anyone else agree with me that The Situation is actually a pretty awesome nickname?

[SugarFree]

I once saw a Violent Femmes cover-band called "The Situation." Whenever I see the NJ mook version, "Country Death Song" starts playing in my head.

[Old Mexican]

New intelligence reports paint bleak outlook for war in Afghanistan.

Do they paint THIS picture?

http://www.directart.co.uk/mall/images/var312.jpg

[BakedPenguin]

Nice.

[MNG]

ACLU brings suit against Georgia Court That Forced Muslim Woman to Remove Headscarf

http://www.times-georgian.com/.....st_ga_news

[Old Mexican]

I was planning on bringing suit against a court for forcing me to remove my gaudy hat, but I will wait for the resolution of that case...

[Tim]

"ACLU brings suit against Muslim Court That Forced Woman to Remove Head."

FIFY

[FleeingCali]

Ha! The ACLU doesn't have the balls.... It doesn't do any good to try and sue people that will just kill you.

[FleeingCali]

I don't feel that sorry for her since she wasn't required to be in court (she was going with a relative with a traffic violation.) But since this was a headscarf (not a burka) I don't see why they gave her a hard time. Send her through the metal detector and what's the problem? If I were on the jury, I'd give her a favorable verdict, but absolutely no damages. If her psyche is harmed forever from this, I should get billions for my unpleasant run-ins with cops.

[generic Brand]

Don't you see?! Metal detectors would not have been able to detect the dangerous metals and explosives she might have been carrying. We need to install backscatter technology [that is actually worse than metal detectors] and include enhanced patdowns at every courthouse... nay, every government building. You know how much people are hating the government right now. You can never be too safe.

[Citizen Nothing]

I visited the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans last weekend. I had to go through a goddamned metal detector/x-ray station to get inside!
I asked the guard - "What? Are terrorists targeting our arthropods now?"
"Federal government owns the building," he said. "That's the rules."

[J sub D]

Now, two classified intelligence reports, one each on Afghanistan and Pakistan and intended for congressional committees, had their contents leaked to The New York Times and their findings are not good.

Damn! I was so expecting an upbeat report about rainbows, unicorns and stable democracies with respect for human rights and the rule of law.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

I guess leaks are only evil if they have the letters "wiki" in front of them.

[John]

Has punch or jab or whatever they hell that idiot son's name is had any one night stands lately? If so, they need to haul him into court.

[Old Mexican]

Holbrooke's last words about Afghanistan may have been in jest.

The man was a kidder to the very end...

[Joe M]

I thought this was an interesting little story. How many Jezebel accounts were hacked, I wonder?

Gawker Hack Exposes Ridiculous Password Habits

[generic Brand]

Jezebel accounts don't get hacked, they get raped by misogynist identity thieves.

[Fluffy]

Passwords are a tool of the patriarchy.

Look, it says "pass" right there. That means men harassing womyn.

And "words" are a reminder of how men use their logocentric biases to hold womyn down.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

::busts (heh!) up::

[Trespassers W]

Is it not also possible that Gawker isn't important enough to invent a unique and secure password? I'm glad I had enough foresight not to use one of the strong passwords I have memorized. I'm pretty sure I used something weak and stupid on purpose.

Why does it even have accounts in the first place?

[SugarFree]

The accounts let you do some pretty neat stuff, such as comment tracking, and it's the same across all the gawker blogs, so you don't have to have a bunch of different screen names. But really, it just makes banning easier.

[generic Brand]

Just curious... what is Reason's take on not registering users? A free market of information shouldn't need registration IDs? Or do they just like us being able to spoof Steve Smith?

[Rhywun]

This whole story is so ridiculous. Who cares if their gawker password is hacked?! Password protection is largely theater anyway, but if they're going to demand passwords, why weren't they encrypted?!

[SugarFree]

Jack Shafer on The Nutmeg Drug Scare

By the way, don't get high on nutmeg. It really, really, really sucks. And don't huff Freon.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Nutmeg has nothing on Henbane...

[BakedPenguin]

From what I've heard, it's not getting high on nutmeg that sucks, it's the next day, when you feel like you drank 6 Four Lokos through a funnel.

[SugarFree]

I didn't find the high itself very pleasant. Sweating, rapid heartbeat, mild hallucinations, vomiting. It was a combination of fever dream and food poisoning.

[Dinna Hearitfromme]

Mace (the spice) is like that, too.

[wylie]

Well, Mace comes off the same seed that you grind for nutmeg, so, yeah.

[Brett L]

Having an acquaintance fall off an icy roof and break his back trying to huff Freon in an ice storm convinced me that inhalants really do cause brain damage.

[SugarFree]

I only did it one long self-destructive night. That was also the night I snorted ground up Valium and white-crosses, vomited up a quart of vodka behind an abandoned bar in rural Indiana and got so lost on back roads I ended at Ft. Knox, about 120 miles away from where I was living at the time. The guys with me weren't much better off.

[Brett L]

Sounds like the day we decided to mix acid and whippits. Goddam. Don't try that, kids.

[waffles]

No, that's perfectly safe and not even comparable to real inhalants. In fact lsd + nitrous is probably one of the safest drug combinations possible.

[Brett L]

Maybe, but it leads to stupid disjointed behaviors and eating/drinking/smoking whatever drugs happen to show up. Next thing you know your friend is holding up the penis pump he found in the woods where you snuck off to re-up thinking he's found a keg tap.

[SugarFree]

So a couple of friends of mine showed up at my house with another friend, Alex. Alex was acting weird, but Alex acted weird a lot of the time. Apocalypse Now started on some movie channel. Alex was quiet and we weren't really paying to much attention to him. That early scene where fire engulfs the screen comes on. Alex cuts loose with a shriek and goes running full speed out the back door, across the night-time backyard and runs into the wooden privacy fence without slowing down. He rebounds off it just like in a cartoon, stands up, climbs a tree, and squats on a limb, keening like a heartbroken monkey.

"Oh," one friend says, "I forgot to tell you that Alex had a large hit of acid before we picked him up."

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Sug, do you have type I or type II diabetes? If type I, I'm amazed you're still alive. ;^)

[SugarFree]

I have both. (Some doctors awkwardly call me a Type 1.5) But I didn't develop until I was 22, about three years after the night described above.

[Madbiker]

Jesus, SF, I'm starting to think you are the male me, or I'm the female you.

Nutmeg highs suck dolphin dick. Banana peels do jack shit. And Jaegermaister is evil in a bottle.

[SugarFree]

I too smoked banana peels. Wow, that tasted bad.

Robert Anton Wilson has a great bit about what would happen if banana peels actually did get you high. Government demanding that bananas be sold pre-peeled, preserved in artificial skins is a great parable on the drug war.

[ev]

The first time I got high I ate a few tablespoons of nutmeg. Jesus was that a miserable experience.

[SugarFree]

Were you were old enough/in Ev'ville at the right time to go see shows (or Rocky Horror) at the Ross Theater?

[J sub D]

The scientific tests helped identify the late monarch's embalmed head, which was shuffled between private collections ever since it disappeared during the French Revolution in 1793.

Wanna see my human head collection?

[SugarFree]

"Iiiiiiiiii ain't got no-body!"

[wylie]

You tried getting a whole body on eBay? The shipping is murder.

[SugarFree]

Most places will give you free shipping it you order ten or more.

[wylie]

Then I'd have to order that walk-in freezer I've had my eye on for years now. Funds are too tight, can either get the cadavers or the storage space, not both, ARGH!

[SugarFree]

Maybe you have some friends that want a dead body. Or even strangers. Put out a craigslist post.

[BakedPenguin]

I heard the Kosovo prime minister is having a sale, in case you needs spare parts.

[UPS joke from early 90s]

Heads we ship them. Tails we dont.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Hot-cha-cha!!

[FleeingCali]

Rich people are freaky... Seems they'll collect anything.

[Old Mexican]

Kosovo prime minister accused of harvesting human organs.

They were NOT his human organ trees!

[Mike Laursen]

I dunno. I read it before having my coffee, so I must have missed the part where it supports the "in jest" conclusion. Most of the article was about all the reasons he had to think the war isn't going to ever succeed.

[Old Mexican]

You must be in your Dadaism phase...

Oh, I see! You were actually replying to another post! Ho ho ho!

[Clancy]

"Holbrooke's last words about Afghanistan may have been in jest."

Blocked at work as a blog. Anyone know what the scoop is?

[Kristen]

Smoking weed in The Netherlands could be like drinking in Utah
Good luck attracting tourists!

[Jerry]

Hopefully the weed pass is against the EU internal market rules. If it is legal to provide such a service in Holland, it should be non-discriminatory against EU-citizens.

[BakedPenguin]

Is The Independent a US newspaper? I'd be surprised to find a US paper making this point:

"The drug violence stems from the peculiarly grey status of cannabis in Dutch law. Contrary to popular belief, pot is not legal in the Netherlands ? only the sale of no more than five grammes of cannabis through licensed coffeeshops is.

The production of cannabis itself is still forbidden, leaving the country in a bizarre legal limbo where coffeeshop owners are forced to buy from the same criminal networks that supply the hard drug market ? a market that some are all too willing to fight over with guns."

[Wind Rider]

Anyone who has had even a passing acquaintance with the USAF IT bureaucracy will recognize this reaction - the one similar to presenting a bic lighter to the Quest for Fire cast in character. Fear, confusion, and complete panic.

[Brett L]

That's pretty much any large bureaucratic IT shop's reaction to anything outside their very narrow expectations of normal.

[J sub D]

The U.S. Senate's $1.2 trillion spending bill has more than 6,000 earmarks, seen by some as a last gasp before a more conservative Congress convenes.

I'm sure we'll have a GOP led filibuster on this and the Senate will, paying heed to the voters wishes recently expressed at the ballot box, pass a continuing resolution sans earmarks.

I'm also sure Santa is bringing me a sled for Xmas because I've been a good boy.

[wylie]

"Good" boy? Granted, after shooting him out of the sky, you DO get to keep the sled, but I'd hardly call that "good" behavior.

[Brett L]

Total ownership above and beneath one's land! Santa had it coming. Filthy elf-loving hippie.

[FleeingCali]

Santa better hope his reindeer don't cross paths with any PD...

[P Brooks]

Yesterday afternoon, I caught the tail end of Maria Bartiromo's interview with Ron Paul. It was actually pretty good; she didn't seem to be panic-stricken by the thought of a more accountable Fed, anyway.

One of the things Dr Paul said which can NEVER be said enough was that the Fed, by holding interest rates near zero, encourages businesses to invest cheap money in foolish projects.

What he didn't say (but should have) is that it this also true for governments; if the Treasury was faced with borrowing costs of ten per cent, would anybody seriously be trying to build sixty miles of "high speed rail" in the middle of nowhere?

[Slut Bunwalla]

Um, I'd say that, yes, politicians would still try to build sixty miles of high speed rail in the middle of nowhere, even if the interest rate was 90%. THEY'RE not the ones paying for it, after all.

[PapayaSF]

Sadly correct.

[J sub D]

The Air Force said it had blocked more than 25 websites that contained the documents, originally obtained by the website WikiLeaks and published starting late last month, in order to keep classified material off unclassified computer systems.

They're going to have to block a few kiloshitloads more than that to keep airmen from learning what's in the wikileaks releases.

That fucking horse has left the goddam barn, folks.

[wylie]

a few kibishitloads

Ftfy?

[Virginia]

The US military is like a little China trying to control information exposure. That is so cute.

What is a word that means hilarious, futile, and infantile all rolled into one?

[NoVAHockey]

I'm sure the Germans have one.

[R C Dean]

Fularfantile?

[Matrix]

I think the AF and DoD are getting stupid. Being a DoD employee, I can get fired for using my personal computer and personal internet access to read documents leaked to the public that virtually anyone with a computer and the internet can access. The classified nature of the documents means absolutely nothing since it is available to the public!

[Corduroy]

Never underestimate the banal stupidity of a bureaucracy

[SFC B]

What's even better is that it will take them FOREVER to change the classification. If they declass what can (let alone should) be declassed, then everyone knows what was, or is, still important.

The smart thing (from a security standpoint only) would be to either declass it all, or keep it all classified.

I think I know which one the system will decide to do.

[BakedPenguin]

In the late 1970's, a declassification project ordered by Congress turned up a classified document about a weapon that was almost completely silent, yet had a lethal distance of over 100 yards.

It was a crossbow.

[generic Brand]

With explosive tips, like in the new Call of Duty: Black Ops? I swear that thing gets me way more times than it should. Not to mention that damned RC-XD.

[Ska]

Use the Flak Jacket for perk 1. Problems solved.

BTW, RCXD is the lamest killstreak. Spy planes are much more useful 3 KS rewards.

[BakedPenguin]

No. Just a crossbow, like they had in 1440.

[Kristen]

Same here at State Dept. We were warned before the diplo-cables were even posted not to look at Wikileaks or we coudl lose our clearances.

[Matrix]

Which is a termination since probably your job, like mine, requires a security clearance.

[generic Brand]

And yet both of you take the risk of posting on Reason??? Don't you know that even the long arms of the Kochtopus can't protect you from the IP sniffers at the DoD and DoS!!

[Kristen]

Until reason is blocked, I be on it, dammit (The Agitator was actually blocked when I first started working here, then became unblocked). I actually don't need a clearance to do my job - I just need one to get in the building and work amongst all these incredibly important people.

[John]

http://www.ocregister.com/news.....-once.html

this is from yesterday, but I can't believe Reason didn't blog about the Festivus adherent in the Orange County Jail.

[Joe M]

That is some bullshit right there. Double-sized meals to maintain his physique? I'm almost never a law and order tough guy, but you lose your privileges when you go to jail, and this was definitely a privilege.

[BakedPenguin]

He needed to man up for the Feats of Strength.

[R C Dean]

I would imagine the Airing of Grievances at a prison Festivus would be something to see.

[Slut Bunwalla]

The Sheriff's Department interviewed King about his religious leanings in May. When asked what his religion was, he answered "Healthism."

"He's healthy so he said health and added an 'ism,'" said Thiagarajah

Ihave nothing to say about this brilliantly stupid sentence, just wanted to point it out.

[John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

Way cool lego reconstruction of an Antikythera mechanism

[Warty]

I want to see a Lego Difference Engine.

[Joe M]

Saw it a few days ago. Love it.

[P Brooks]

Gosh, if you can't trust the Huffington Post, who CAN you trust?

Dear kind hearted American Citizen,

I am hereditary prince and ruler of Namibia. Unfortunately, certain unsavory elements in my country are plotting to deprive me of my rights and vast financial wealth. If you will send me, by wire transfer, one million of your dollars, I shall repay you one hundred times.

Time is short; please hurry, and I will also give to you your own diamond mine.

[John]

From best of the web yesterday.

"An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Ann Richards beat George Bush in 1990. She actually beat Clayton Williams that year. The article also incorrectly left the impression that Earl Weaver, the former Baltimore Orioles manager, is dead. The article also incorrectly stated that the Orioles won their division twice in the 1990s; they won the division in 1997, but they went to the playoffs and the American League Championship Series as the wildcard team in 1996."--correction, New York Times, Dec. 12

[Brett L]

Jeezus. Why didn't they just print the facts they got right?

[SugarFree]

Bill O'Reilly Wants a Bear to Eat Kate Gosselin

Just no one to root for here. I don't want to put a bear through that.

[Ragin Cajun]

I know. Andrew Sullivan has been through enough.

[John]

Well he is obsessed with fertile vaginas. But, letting him do that might just be enabling his neurosis.

[Tim]

If you were a bear would you eat her?

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

In which way?

[Solanum]

He even suggested a bear murder her!

Bears are capable of killing with malice aforethought?

[Slut Bunwalla]

I can't watch videos at work; did O'Reilly actually say that he wants a bear to eat Kate Gosselin, or are they breaking the rules of the No Spin Zone?

[Mike M.]

Senate spending bill larded with 6,000 earmarks worth $8 billion.

OK, something is wrong with all these media stories. There is absolutely no way that just $1.2 trillion can possibly fund the entire federal government through the rest of this fiscal year.

[NoVAHockey]

it just covers the discretionary side of the budget to fund the government until Sept. 30, 2011. That figure does not county "mandatory" spending like Medicare and Social Security and repayment of the national debt.

[Mike M.]

Senate spending bill larded with 6,000 earmarks worth $8 billion.

OK, something is wrong with all these media stories. There is absolutely no way that just $1.2 trillion can possibly fund the entire federal government through the rest of this fiscal year.

[Warty]

Bradley Manning's jailers are not following the Golden Rule.

[John]

That is definitely unlawful pre-trial punishment. The judge will probably give him some serious time served credit in response.

They did have to segregate him though. The guy is gay and accused of being a traitor. He wouldn't do well in the general population. It would be more cruel to put him there.

What a fucking dumb ass. Did he really think he was going to get away with something like that?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado:

Wow, I just call that "me time".

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Of course, that might explain a few things.....

[Ska]

You didn't use the "reply to this" button; that's got to be saying something.

[Mike M.]

It is very distressing to me to see the military justice system becoming just as slow and shitty as our civilian justice system.

Why has Manning not been charged with espionage or anything yet?

For that matter, why has the military trial of idal Malik Hasan not even started yet? It's been over a freaking year since he murdered thirteen people in front of numerous eyewitnesses. That piece of crap should be dead already.

[John]

Manning has been charged with about eight counts of various federal crimes.

The Hasan thing is really infuriating. But nothing has happened on that because the Army is so embarassed by it. They had a radical Muslim in their ranks who as much as wrote a letter to the President saying he was going to kill the infidel. And they promoted him and sent him to Fort Hood out of fear that doing something might offend Muslim sensibilities.

You watch. A few years from now on some Friday afternoon when it is over shadowed by some larger even, Hasan will plead guilty to some lesser charge. And get to spend the rest of his life in prison as a hero to the jihad.

[SFC B]

I think I just found the point where my personal emotions run square into my NCO emotions.

Personally, I think it is horrible for someone to be isolated the way PFC Manning has. However as a NCO I feel a whole lot of nothing for a Soldier who betrayed the trust put to him by his fellow Soldiers.

And given the dud nature of the information released so far (based on my reading of the reactions of people who have reviewed them), and Mr. Asrange apparently holding some info back in an effort to save his own skin, I'm thinking that the young PFC is deeply regretting his decisions.

He is going to be convicted of something related to treason, and he is going to spend a very long time in prison. Maybe years and years from now, after much lobbying on his behalf, President Jenna Bush will pardon him before she leaves the White House after her second term. In the mean time I hope he's comforted by the fact that Glen Greenwald views him as a heroic whistleblower.

[John]

You notice Greenwald isn't going to jail. Easy for him to cheer the guy on.

[rhea]

These are great holiday treat!!? And another terrorist attack, how many more lives do they need....
http://www.pathtoasia.com/jobs/

[Trespassers W]

I miss the anonymity bot.

[Ide Nine]

Holbrooke approaches (Obama) and asks to be called "Richard," rather than "Dick,". "Later, the president told others that he found the request highly unusual and even strange..."

...As anyone who is called a "dick" several thousand times a day probably would...

[Dick Allen]

Fuck you with this "Richie" shit.

[Virginia]

NYC pays cops to guard curbside garbage and impound vehicles lest some entrepreneur save the city money on its waste contract.

And while the value of one discarded appliance may seem marginal at best, in the scrap industry, the fluctuations of commodity prices and volume add up to real money.

Indeed, the big loser in what might be called New York's Appliances Caper appears to be a multinational recycling conglomerate, a subsidiary of which has a large city contract to recycle the hundreds of thousands of tons of metal, glass and plastic generated each year by New Yorkers, including bulk metal, like appliances.

h/t Mish

[Brett L]

Panda Men. Those Chinese and their furry fetishes.

[Liberal Douchebag]

You fucking Christians need to learn some religious tolerance.

[anarch O. Henri IV]

Paris vaut bien une messe.

[affenkopf]

Prisoners Strike in Georgia

[Fluffy]

Amazon is stealing books from the accounts of Kindle owners again:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/.....om-Kindles

[John]

that is fucked up. They can't come and steal my paper books.

[Shelby]

So, what's with Balko's The Agitator website today? I keep getting "you are not authorized" responses when I try to go there.

[Kristen]

He recently upgraded his WordPress installation, which in turn disabled the karma tool...perhaps he's trying to get the karma tool up-and-running again. We're all jonesing over there to up- and down-vote each other.

[????? ??????]

Thanks